I am not getting a lot of weaving done today. I got a new computer and have it set up in my studio. It is a Windows 8 with a touch screen. I have a lot to learn. I am also waiting for a shipment of yarn to come. I made part of a warp for brown wraps. I got 2 5" section and one 4" section done and ready to go. Then I discovered that one of the browns that I ordered is different from the previous one. Oops, oh well, I will just have to space things out somehow. If I put one 5" section on each end and the 4" one in the middle, which isn't really the middle because the width is 25" that leaves me with one 5" section and one 6" section. That could actully work and maybe I will be the only one who notices. As soon as the UPS dude shows up I can start making the rest of the warp. I am hoping to get a couple of brown wraps to galleries next week. I took a batch of woven ornaments into a gallery yesterday. I can't believe that I used to spend so much time making ornaments. I just want them gone at this point. I need to decide which of the ornament making supplies can be used for something else and which ones I should just chuck.

OK, it has been way too long since I wrote. I won't try to catch up and talk about what I have been doing. I will just start again and talk about what I AM doing. Weavermom's World is no longer just weaving. I still call myself a weaver, but I needed to branch out. I need to make some more bamboo tops, really really need to. I have orders for three and I have one more show coming up. I just got three batches of t-shirts dyed and hope to get them into galleries in the next few days. The shirts have to sit for two days to get the colors intense. I have dyed them black and just ran out of the last of my jet black dye powder. Arg, this is no longer available. I will have to find something else to get that good black dye. I mix it up as a 5% solution, I hope that I mixed it up as 5%. It was 500 gm to 1000ml does that work out to 5%? Oh well, I will find out when I rinse them. 100ml just wouldn't have been enough water. I am still doing the refabrications on the big loom downstairs. I don't know why I have such a block on this. I am getting near the end. Then I am going to weave a plastic raincoat. OK, so that is going to be more of joke piece, but it will go fast. I then have an order for two rugs. I finally found the material and got it for 60% off, but I will still charge extra, this stuff wasn't cheap even on sale. My Baby Wolf is empty right now. I have a warp 65% done, but I ran out of brown cotton. I ordered it last Thursday and it didn't ship until this morning. Oh well, it has given me a chance to catch up on a few other things. I finished up a bunch of ornaments. I will take part into Starring the Gallery www.starringthegallery.com tomorrow and hopefully get some to Village Fine Art Gallery in Rochester Hills. Then there is the Michigan Weavers Guild Winter Market sale on Saturday. Small things like ornaments sell well. I should go downstairs and dig through my handwoven cards and see what I can find to bring. I have heavy chenille scarves on my little loom. I think that I am going to cut off what I have done then re-tie. I know that I cannot get all of the scarves done without cutting off part way. They just won't fit on the cloth beam. I promise I will write once a week.

The end of a line

I have completed my outdoor art fair season. I was in Westlake, OH (Cleveland area) this past weekend. My wonderful friend Deb Nelson came from Richmond, VA to help me. We set up in a light rain. Light rain, but we still looked like two drowned rats by the end. After putting up both canopies and the grids we decided that it would be best to not put up the merchandise. The problem with two canopies is that the rain comes in between the two.

We got up early on Saturday and set up before things started. It was still chilly and cloudy when we got there, but the sun did come out. I was doing a demo for this show so I had my little loom. I was weaving tote bags out of plastic bags. I wonder how many times this past weekend I said that. We went until 8:00 on Saturday. By the end of the day I had a jacket on. For those who know me you know that it was cold.

Sunday the high never got over 50 degrees. I had on two pair of socks. I had to keep taking my shoes off so that I could weave and my feet got pretty cold on Saturday. I did discover that I can weave, right a receipt and run my charge machine all with gloves on. The gloves were a big seller.

Deb spent Sunday trying to untangle a sari silk warp for me. Her fingers were getting pretty cold by the end.

We took down in 47 degrees with a cold wind. I was not real efficient at this. I think that my brain was cold.

I have unpacked the van and put the canopy away for the season. I have three shows coming up in the next couple of months then I will pack away the stock until the spring. Or if I need a present.

Post Ann Arbor

Well, another show has passed. The sales were not what I had hoped for. I had a better spot than last year, and the weather was wonderful. Then again, there is the economy. I got mixed reviews on how artists did. Some did really well, some were not happy.

I wove tote bags out of plastic bags. This really got people to stop and watch. If only I had some done before the show. That is the story of my life, "if only."

I do have some bags sewn now. Here is the picture:




Now hopefully they will sell at Arts, Beats & Eats.

Rug Warp Done

I finished weaving the last part of the rug warp. Instead of weaving one or two more rugs I wove material to make tote bags. I am going to start making tote bags along with my rugs. I have asked a few people to save plastic bags for me. I figured that would be a good thing to make bags out of plastic bags. Why do I have visions of me digging through the recycle bins at store to retrieve more plastic bags? I wish that I could get my hands on some Sendick's bags from Milwaukee. They are red and very heavy. My next warp will be black and grey. All of the white bags that I have will go well with that, so with Kohl's grey bags.

While this may not have all of the creativity that I crave I must weave to sell. I am going to make it fun at least. Some of them i will line and put pockets in. Maybe I will find some cool material for the lining. There are some beautiful batiks out there.

How to weave a rag rug

Most of the rugs that I weave are woven with byproducts of the textile industry. I do weave some out of material that I cut. I like the look of Madras plaid after it is woven into a rug.

These are the steps that I take in weaving a rug:

First I wash the material. Here is what it looks like before I start cutting:

Then I cut one end off at a 45 degree angle so that I can make a large bias tube out of the material. I take the selvedges of the material and line them up. Since one end of the material was cut at an angle you have to pull one end up. You can see the end of the material is now a bias.

I sew the selvedges together with a straight stitch.

I take the piece that I cut off of the end and sew on the opposite end so that I have a complete bias tube. (Sorry, no picture)

A bias tube of this length would be too hard to handle in the rag cutter so I cut it into sections of about 30" each.

Then I take each section and feed it into the rag cutter, this makes things go very quickly. You do have to be careful to not allow the material that is under the rag cutter from getting cut.

After I finish cutting a bias section I have enough to fill one of my rag shuttles. Coming off of the rag cutter you will have a nice little pile like this:
and yes, I do realize that I need to vacuum.

Here is the rug that I am working on with a piece of the original material:I made this warp to be used with several different wefts. I do wish that with this filler I had left the natural warp out.

Good Day

I had a very productive day. I finished the green wool rug that I started last night, turns out that I did have enough "worms" for it. I cut all of the plaid material that I started cutting last night. I think that i have figured out the best way to do that on the new cutting table. Then I wove two rugs out of that plaid material. They turned out better than I had thought that they would. I checked the filing cabinet, there are some that will work out well with this blue/green/cream warp, and some that I think will work better with a grey/black warp. I had planned to put a 10/2 black perle warp on next and weave up the batik butterfly material that I have stockpiled. People really like black and white clothing. However I think that I am going to put a black/grey warp on next for more rugs. The rugs are selling well so I should stick with that. I probably won't put on as long a warp as I did with the current warp. I do want to get to that batik material.